Surviving a Mad Max World: How To Avoid Marauders and Looters After the Collapse

A mad max scenario is one of the worst-case scenarios one can prepare for. The adage “if you can’t protect you don’t own it” rings true in this case. Long-term survival plans that reflect this type of disaster suggest preppers getting away from urban and suburban living and heading for hills. While this would be the safest option, there are dangers that lurk for those who plan to “live off the land.” Because in a post-collapse world – they will come for all that you own.

[Editor’s Note: A mad max scenario is one of the worst-case scenarios one can prepare for. The adage "if you can’t protect you don’t own it” rings true in this case. Long-term survival plans that reflect this type of disaster suggest preppers getting away from urban and suburban living and heading for hills. While this would be the safest option, there are dangers that lurk for those who plan to "live off the land.” Because in a post-collapse world – they will come for all that you own.]

Seems almost self-explanatory, right? I mean, what could be so involved with the term “living with the land,” right? There is a lot to it. There’s a reason to do this:

Living with the land will help you to live, and avoid the greatest hunter of all: man. Men…mankind…has the same instincts as you, the same success in the generations as you. Although this is not an “anthropological” treatise, it holds a lot of anthropology within it, because there are a few key points you must keep in mind: Your weakness is a weakness shared by other men; your strength is a strength possessed by other men; what you can do can be done by other men.

The commonality is both your strength and your weakness. You become cold, and so does the man (or men) hunting you. The dark poses impediments and unknown dangers, and it does the same to your hunters.

Turn the Hunters Into the Hunted

You can turn the hunters into the hunted…for you are a hunter: it is “hard-wired” in you through a thousand generations of successful hunters, warriors, and killers. You need to eat, and so do your pursuers. You need water, and so do they. You can track, and so can they. You have senses that can detect man, and so do they. All of this, yes, you know, I’m sure.

But have you considered it all? Really considered it?

The land: to blend with it, and to live with it without being obtrusive is the key to avoiding the hunters…and remember that they have the same limitations as you. The more pure and “clear” you keep your senses, the better they’ll work for you. We have done some pieces on the way the eye works, and the sense of smell. This is the time to do your work…your training to use these senses to their maximum capabilities. Let’s cover some basics as to what to expect when you’re living with the land and avoiding marauders, foreign soldiers, forces of a dictatorial government, and so forth.

10 Ways To Avoid Marauders and Looters After the Collapse

Don’t travel the heavily-traveled: stay off of paths and trails and cover your tracks, as most people (and anyone hunting you) will use them. Busting brush will ensure you’re safer.

What’s easy for you is easy for them: taking the harder path will oftentimes confuse and discourage them.

You lay a trail for dogs or men: your scent for the dogs and your tracks for the men. Defeat both: use “blue” (water) features to disguise and throw off the scent, being careful not to leave footprints in banks or mud.

Opposite actions and times: You sleep during the daytime, travel at night. I have emphasized this (to the “chagrin” of naysayers galore) in previous articles…you have to develop the ability to move at night. When they’re eating, be on the move. When they’re awake, you stay in a hide site.

Boobytrap all avenues of approach and high-traffic areas: punji stakes, pits, and IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices). Heaven forbid! Do you want to win, or just play “good guys and bad guys” in the woods? There is going to come a time to act and not just sit around with all of your canned fruits and stored supplies. Hopefully, that time will come later, so that you can prepare for it.

Key choke points use for an ambush, and to circle around them: As they pass through a defile, backtrack on them. Or ambush them in the defile. A rock slide is a beautiful thing that can be initiated with a minor amount of explosives

Use the animals as cover: following them will throw off the trail of the dogs. It will also say something for your tracking ability to be able to follow a small herd of deer or elk.

Your pursuers can be “distracted”: I’ll leave it to you to figure out what to leave for them….the standard fare can be imagined. Your job is to avoid them or to “deal” with them, not to “win them over to your side.”

Do not underestimate their tenacity: they may have you greatly outgunned, with multiple “shifts” to put on you to allow you only a scant amount of rest and sleep. This is where endurance and physical training comes into play: the “thing” that nobody wants to hear about.

If it looks as if it’s a good hide site in plain view? Then it’s not, and they will be sure to check it. Don’t put yourself underground even before they catch you.

One of the things you’re going to have to do is practice, as well as reinforce your plan of action for when the time comes. Sound boring? It’s better than going to some mall and spending all day meandering around with a herd of beeves. You have to develop these skills so they’re ready to employ at a moment’s notice. The knowledge is not enough: you have to put it into practicum. That’s the only way to test yourself and know your capabilities. Falls in line with the Army saying, “Know yourself and seek self-improvement.” Don’t stagnate: improve. Learn to live with the land, or you may not make it through…when “the man” comes around. JJ out!

(Sign up for our FREE newsletter to get prepper advice, homesteading tips, and more delivered straight to your inbox!)

This article was originally published at Ready Nutrition™ on January 12th, 2018

15 Comments

I’m really not too worried about being killed by Marauders. Unless you’re counting the 1960s through 1970 versions, Mercury only made and additional 11,052 of them in 2003 and 2004. How many can be left on the road now? Not many, and the ones that still exist won’t perform very well off road anyway. So your chances of being killed by a Marauder are very slim. And besides, where are they going to get the fuel for these things? Don’t worry about it….it’s a non issue..

don’t do it alone if you can watch each others 6.
even in a urban hide, set the shooting field to help your neighbors at need.
sometimes a urban spot may be safer and more sustainable like a neighborhood association defense force.
a good read is “Dog Star”

“Defeat both: use “blue” (water) features to disguise and throw off the scent”

That’s how it works in the movies, not in real life. The scent is moved to the shore with the clouds air bubbles that you whip up as you wade through the water. It actually makes it EASIER for dogs to track you, as they know they just have to keep following the shore line to feel the smell, instead of walking in uneven terrain.

Speaking of movies, another bad idea in them is to walk in hoops to confuse dogs. Tracking dogs can feel the difference in time between one footstep and then next, so they’ll just move in the direction you last moved in, ignoring the hoop.

The best idea to deal with dogs following you is to run straight through the terrain, as fast as you can. That’s it. Another idea is to fool the dog owner, not the dog. This is done by walking on paths made by animals as they walk toward drinking water. Then the dog’s owner might think that his dog has started tracking an animal instead.